We usually associate insurance with things like cars, homes, jewellery and other expensive items. Rarely do we associate it with legal issues.

But we should. There are situations in your life where you will need to be legally covered, and if you’re not – you’re in for a big shock.

Let’s look at some examples:

1. You get into a fight at a bar after having had a few too many drinks – and someone gets hurt (or many ‘someones’). Next thing you know, you get a court order to appear before a judge – in other words, you get sued. What now?
2. You get a bit too verbal about someone’s attitude over social media, and it can be construed as if you called him or her names, or made up some facts. This person (or his/her legal team) decide to sue you for defamation. What do you do?
3. Your boss decided that he doesn’t like you and starts treating you unfairly. You start getting warnings for petty things and it is clear that he is trying to get rid of you. Where do you turn to?
4. One night you go out to a party and on your way back you are in a serious accident. Someone dies. The other driver denies any wrongdoing and insists that you skipped a red light. How do you handle this?
5. While paging through the newspaper, you find an interesting article about an art exhibition you recently visited and wrote about. You look closely and see that it is indeed YOUR article, but with someone else’s name attached to it. You phone the newspaper and they deny ever having received anything from you. You know this is plagiarism or even theft. Who can help you with this?
These are just a few of hundreds of scenarios where you will need legal advice and even legal representation. You wouldn’t want to end up getting the state’s lawyer who just graduated from law school and has never even gone to court before – to defend you.

What to do?

Make sure you have proper cover in the form of a legal firm that deals with exactly such cases. This is where legal insurance comes into the picture. Make sure someone who knows what they’re doing has your back.

UApply.co.za is not a financial service provider should in no way be seen as one. In compiling the articles for our website due caution was exercised in an attempt to gather information from reliable and accurate sources. The articles are of a general nature and doe not purport to offer financial or investment advice. Neither the author, nor the publisher, will accept any responsibility for losses, omissions, errors, fortunes or misfortunes that may be suffered by any person that acts or refrains from acting as a result of these articles.